Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Is there ever a good time for the well pump to die?

No, but today was close to the worst time.

Ben got up and went to the gym at 5 this morning. Water was fine. Leah got up at 5:30 and brushed her teeth. Water was fine. She turned the shower on and 20 seconds later, it stopped abruptly. That was it. No water. Lucky for us we have great neighbors who have had more than their share of well problems, so they welcomed us to come over all day to use the bathroom and fill jugs with water.

After much testing and pontificating, Ben and David decided it was the pump. It was getting power, but wasn't coming on. Sounds like a pump to me. So they began pulling. And pulling. And pulling. Three of them out there, taking turns and stopping every so often to catch their breath. When they finally got the pump to the top of the well casing, the very long flexible pipe was coiled around them on the grass and they decided to find out just how deep that pump had been submerged. So they measured the circumference of the circle, multiplied by pi and then by the number of coils and came up with . . .

330 feet. Get a visual now . . . that's a football field plus 30 feet.

Dude, those guys are my heroes!

They disconnected the old pump and went out for a new one. Came home, hooked 'er up, and lowered the whole thing. And guess what?

No water. So you know what they did?

They pulled the Whole. Thing. Up. Again. The wire is so corroded it's not getting juice all the way down to the pump. So tomorrow morning, they will replace 330 feet of wire. And hope it works.

While they were at it, we found time for playing with Sticky Bean

and Ab made us a wreath for the front door.

In the meantime, we've had pizza for dinner and are on our way to the YMCA to take showers. We're thankful that it's not raining, that this didn't happen on Thursday when we had 23 people here for dinner, and that we have a Y membership that's right around the corner. It could be worse.

Honestly, I don't know what is more impressive: the fixing of the well, which we would not have the remotest idea how to do, or the math that was done to figure out the depth of the well! (We wouldn't have the remotest idea how to do that either!)